The Turning | Bask | Concept Explained
The concept behind the Spaghetti Western / Sci-Fi opus that is Bask’s 2025 album, The Turning.
** What follows is my personal interpretation of the story based on the lyrics along with the brief story description from the album’s press kit.
Track 1) “Chasm”
Instrumental track setting the scene and the tone. This story takes place on another planet in another time and place lost to history. It’s a planet resembling the old west with extraterrestrial outlaws.
Track 2) “In the Heat of the Dying Sun”
Here we meet our heroine known as The Rider. We see her riding across the endless desert as the sun sinks down into the sky. She is an outlaw on the run, trying to escape her inevitable capture.
Track 3) “The Traveler”
Here we meet out next character: The Traveler. He is an ageless outlaw (and being a fantasy and science fiction writer, I have imagined a magic system for this world that’s half technology half witchcraft. I’d like to think this Traveler character is a bit of a psionic—but more on that later).
Just like our Rider, the Traveler is galloping on his horse across the wasteland in an effort to evade capture. He speaks of his time on this planet—the longest he has been able to stay in one place running his con until he was eventually run out of town following the betrayal of his old partner. I imagine him having left bodies in his wake after the shoot out that took place during his escape. Now things have caught up with him, and he needs to get off planet quick.
As he rides out of town, he happens upon the Rider. He tells her he is a weary traveler and has lost his way. He explains that he can get them both out of their dire situation. He has a device called the “Turning” but it requires two people to operate.
The riders agrees and together they open a portal through time and space and fall through.
Track 4) “The Cloth”
The Traveler and the Rider tumble through the portal but instead of it taking them to another planet, they enter a strange sort of purgatory. It’s the same old west time period and the same endless dry desert where they just opened the portal, but things are different—the sky is illuminated in the eerie rust-colored glow of sunset. It’s as if they are trapped in perpetual dusk yet time continues to tick on at an alarming rate. The hot summer weather fades and fall sets in. The winters in this part of the world are harsh. If they are caught in the elements without proper shelter, they will die.
So they mount their horses and ride toward the sunset as they try to outrun the changing of the seasons, hoping to find the portal at the end of the road.
Meanwhile, the Traveler wonders what the hell happened. As a psionic, he has used the Turning successfully many times before. Why have things suddenly gone awry? He looks to the woman beside him and wonders…
The Rider isn’t sure what to make of this purgatory they are in. She is afraid, yet beyond her fear is curiosity. Both the Traveler and the Rider have had their faces covered by bandanas to keep from breathing in dust while they ride. Neither have seen each other’s face. But there’s something familiar about the Traveler’s eyes. When they take a break to rest their horses, the Rider yanks down the cloth covering the Traveler’s face.
****If you’re enjoying the story behind this western sci-fi story, here is where I do a shameless plug for my book. My dark fantasy novel, Trials for the Haunted, which is about a girl on a quest for redemption—set in an old west inspired fantasy world. If you want to hear a story involving human sacrifice, steampunk weapons, and a deadly competition—this is the book for you.
It’s available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook!
The Turning fits the vibe and setting of my Barrelslinger world to a T! I’ll definitely be using this album when I create my book playlist for the sequel. ****
Okay, back to the album…
Track 5) “Dig my Heels”
Here we get a little backstory on both our characters. The Rider gapes at the Traveler’s face. She recognizes him for he wears the face of the man she once loved—a man who is dead.
At the same time, the Traveler yanks down her bandana and finds she very closely resembles a woman from his past—someone he left behind when he was running from the law. A woman he has never forgotten about and his been pining after for years and years. She too is definitely dead from old age as this happened long, long ago. Our Traveler has an extended life because of his psionic abilities.
The Rider became an outlaw after her lover was killed in a shootout, and she went on a killing spree taking out every man responsible for her lover’s death.
In walks the Traveler around the same time and place. Being an intergalactic sorcerer (AKA Space Cowboy), when he arrives on a new planet, he can take on the face of whomever he wishes—and of course why not be a young attractive man. He molds himself after the Rider’s dead lover before riding off into the sunset, never expecting to run into anyone who might recognize him.
In this track I imagine the two falling in love with each other, though it’s a love based on the people the other resembles and not who they truly are. The Traveler doesn’t reveal he is not the man she thinks he is.
Track 6) “Unwound”
I think of this track as a montage of the two’s travels through this endless purgatory. Time stretches and rebounds, forcing the two to endure decades in a single ride while sometimes passing through a month in a matter of minutes as they try to outrun the cold and the dark constantly on their tail.
At long last, by the end of the track the two finally reach the end of their road when they arrive at the portal at the edge of the wasteland. They are finally about to get off planet and escape death.
But here is where the Rider finds out the Traveler is not her lover back from the dead. She feels betrayed and sickened by the deception They arrive at the portal, and she rides on ahead but just as she’s about to cross, a deadly storm catches up with them. They get caught in a hurricane.
Track 7) “Long Lost Light”
In the wake of the hurricane, our Rider wakes up alone in an unfamiliar land. Where‘s the desert and the orange sky? She realizes she is on another planet, having been sucked through the portal during the deadly storm. But where is the Traveler? She can only assume he is dead. Unless he left her behind like he left the woman before her…
Track 8) “The Turning”
The Rider picks herself up and presses onward. She secures herself a new horse –or this word’s version of a horse—and rides on. But she can’t stop thinking about the Traveler. She’s wearing his duster and in it smells like him. Despite the Traveler not being the man he looks like on the outside, she still fell in love with him.
Eventually, she finds she doesn’t want to go on without him. But just as she’s about to despair, she reaches into the pocket of his duster and finds the Turning device. Only a Psionic can activate it, but when she touches it, it lights up. She smiles; it’s the first time she’s felt hopeful since she arrived on this planet.
This is where the story ends—on a bit of cliffhanger, though we are led to assume she plans to return through another portal in search of the Traveler.